The report below was written Jul 7, 2015 to mark the ten year anniversary of the 7/7 bombings in London but also to acknowledge the ten year fight of one man's family for British justice.

That man was Jean Charles de Menezes who was brutally slain by forces working post 7/7 to keep the streets of London safe.

Wrongly suspecting Jean Charles of being a suicide bomber they blew his brains out, literally, on a tube train in front of other passengers and with no warning.

A young, foreign man in a strange country which used to have a reputation for being a welcoming place to visit, was murdered by those supposed to protect us all.

You can argue it however you like but WE failed Jean Charles.

He was wrongly identified and targeted mainly due to his appearance and no person or persons will ever be brought to justice.

His family in desperation took their case to the ECHR, European Court of Human Rights, but Wednesday that court's judges ruled the British decision not to charge any UK police officer for his fatal shooting was basically fine.

His family will now to try to move on. Lessons may have been learned but that will not help them.

2008 the family protested at the inquest but jury told to ignore them - The coroner previously directed the jurors they can return only a verdict of lawful killing or an open verdict - but March 30, 2016, the road to justice ends

Op-Ed: As we remember the victims of the 7/7 deadly terror attacks in London in 2005 it seems appropriate that we also remember a young Brazilian man living in London who was brutally killed by police officers after they wrongly identified him as having links to terrorism.

Jean Charles da Silva e de Menezes [Jean Charles de Menezes] was 27 when he was gunned down. In the days and weeks following 7/7 the UK was on high alert and people were jittery.

Would more terror attacks be launched in the UK? Were there rogue elements with links to the 7/7 bombers still at large?

On July 21 it looked like another 7/7 was about to unfold. "A smell of burning rubber. Three rucksacks full of explosives ditched at Tube stations. An hour later, the same on an east London bus" and the perpetrators at large. It was a tough time for all in the UK, especially the police and security services but that does not excuse nor explain the brutality involved in killing Jean Charles da Silva e de Menezes on July 22.

Mr de Menezes had been under surveillance but it was a case of mistaken identity.

The authorities believed he had links to the 7/7 bombers but they were wrong.

On July 22, 2005, "He took a bus to Brixton tube station, before boarding another to Stockwell because the tube station at Brixton was closed." That looked like he was trying to 'lose' officers following him; officers who had wrongly identified him as one of the failed bombers, Hussain Osman, a resident in the same block of flats.

"It was shortly after this that Mr de Menezes got off the bus at Brixton, before boarding again. It was this decision which meant the Brazilian, according to the family's lawyer Michael Mansfield QC, was "virtually dead".

Police could have prevented Mr de Menezes from boarding any transport but they did not.

As passengers in one carriage looked on Mr de Menezes was killed as police fired seven bullets into his head at close range. The train was still at the platform with its doors open, having just been evacuated.

Contradictory reports by officers and witnesses followed.

Initial accounts suggested that Mr de Menezes had fled from armed officers by vaulting over barriers before stumbling on to an underground train, where the officers opened fire. One witness in the carriage, Mark Whitby, 47, whose account formed an important part of the subsequent reports, said he had seen a man who looked Pakistani "hotly pursued by what I knew to be three plain-clothes police officers".He described the man wearing "a coat like you would wear in winter, a sort of padded jacket" and looking as petrified as "a cornered rabbit" when he got on the train. Mr Whitby today refused to comment on the leak. According to documents obtained by ITV News from the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), which is investigating the shooting, Mr de Menezes was filmed on CCTV cameras entering the station at a normal walking pace and even picking up a free copy of the Metro newspaper. He was wearing a denim jacket. His family's solicitor, Harriet Wistrich, said the disclosures meant police had no reason to suspect Mr de Menezes was a suicide bomber, beyond the fact that he came out of a house under surveillance.

Jean Charles da Silva e de Menezes non-white appearance, heightened fears he was a suicide bomber and the decision was made to 'take him out'.

10 years on his family are still seeking justice.

The police force involved did offer an apology describing the incident as "a tragedy, and one that the Metropolitan Police Service regrets but the family rejected this.

Commissioner Sir Ian Blair said immediately following the killing the IPCC, independent police complaints commission, would not be allowed access to the scene; internal investigations, delays, accusations, leaks and more followed.

No person or persons were ever held to account for his death.

At the inquest into his death in 2008 the jury were instructed they could only return a verdict of lawful killing or an open verdict

The current Tory government is trying to break free of the ECHR. It is using cases that have been 'shams' to further its aims but the case of Mr de Menezes illustrates why we need to maintain the ECHR status quo.

Rubbing salt into the wounds of the dead man's family "Undercover police 'spied on the de Menezes family' [as they grieved]: Secret probe after Brazilian was shot dead in catastrophic blunder" Daily Mail

July 22, 2015: Social media is remembering Jean Charles da Silva e de Menezes as his family still search for justice. Add #justice4jean and RT reports today "‘Brutal execution’: Jean Charles de Menezes vigil held 10yrs after counter-terror police shooting."

Racial profiling is an issue in the US also. While it is illegal, there are still instances where people of color are stopped.

Reply

Steve Kay

7/7/2015 12:37:55 pm

Mr Menezes was NOT carrying a rucksack. At the outset police surveillance officers noted and put on record that the man they were following was - "not carrying anything".

Only one officer wrestled Mr Menezes, not to the ground but back into his seat. That officer had a skin tone darker than the unidentified man he was following, was dressed near identically in jeans, light denim jacket and black t-shirt. He was armed with a handgun and had concealed under his clothing a police radio and spare battery and also HE was the one carrying a rucksack.

Reply

Eileen

8/7/2015 02:03:25 am

Thanks for reading and commenting Steve

I have edited the back pack out. I have added a source for the 'several officers'.

But I stand by the point that his colour played a part. Officers had wrongly identified Menezes as Hussain Osman-if he had been white his skin would have saved him.

While it was a tough time in the UK in 2005 there is no excuse for what happened, the attempts at cover ups and the lies. And the fact that the bereaved family were spied on by police following the young mans' death is abhorent.

My rush post Monday is now updated. But I wanted to mark this young man's death as well as the 7/7 victims

Perhaps you were there on the day. Feel free to comment back.

Reply

Steve Kay

10/7/2015 12:48:57 pm

Thank you Eileen for editing out the fictional “back pack”. You might feel the need to edit a bit more.

It appears a lot of editing has been done to Wikipedia's 'Death of Jean Charles de Menezes' in the last few days (not by me) and the false statement “several officers wrestled him to the ground” has suddenly disappeared. Further down it still says as previously “Hotel 3 grabbed him, pinned his arms against his torso, and pushed him back into the seat” which according to evidence given at the Stockwell Inquest is in fact correct. That ill-researched, inconsistent, propagandising mess of a web-page is not to be trusted and is known to have been part edited and interfered with via government computers located in Whitehall.

At the trial of the failed 22/7 bombers, Nigel Sweeney QC for the prosecution told the jury at Woolwich Crown Court, 16 Jan 2007, “Osman lived in south London in a ground-floor flat at 40 Blair House, just off Stockwell Road, not far from Stockwell Tube station … the address that Osman had registered in at the gym in 2003 was not where he had been living at the time before the bombings.” (The Inquest jury were told nothing of this.) Osman had lived in Stockwell with his wife and family for several years. Abdi Omar (the other prime suspect that morning, who later turned out to be wholly innocent) lived at 21 Scotia Road, Tulse Hill, but not Osman. Though registered at the gym some two years before with that address, there is no evidence in the public domain to show that Osman had ever actually been there.

Jean Charles de Menezes did not live in the same block of flats as Hussain Osman.

At the Inquest the two killers claimed that at some non-specific time they had heard positive identification for Hussain Osman over the police radio. There is no supporting evidence for this, nothing in the police log. In evidence under oath the surveillance team were absolutely adamant that at no time, at no point had any of them positively identified Menezes as Hussain Osman.

I hope you would agree with me that even if the man had been one of the failed bombers of the day before, the savage killing of an unarmed man posing no immediate threat is equally abhorrently unlawful be it a would-be mass murderer or a man who is wholly innocent. A man just sitting there reading the newspaper, or just sitting there, not reading the newspaper – we'll never know.

Eileen

8/7/2015 02:04:10 am

I think he was carrying a newspaper according to some reports by the way

Reply

Eileen

8/7/2015 06:56:24 pm

Alastair I will have to edit your comment as there is a broken link but I will leave it for now- I agree totally with what you say thanks

Reply

eileen

11/7/2015 03:32:52 am

Steve

Thanks for coming back with more info.

Lesson learned about Wikipedia.

I also relied on memories of the day which is why I posted it as an opinion piece.

I wanted to make sure this young man was remembered as well as the victims of terror on 7/7

In the UK we are fighting terror to protect our freedom and way of life and killing an innocent man in this way defeat's that object.

I was appalled and still feel that way as his family seek justice. If you want to post a piece about this in our guest blog contact the team at tekjournalismuk@gmail.com

Either way thanks for supplying more information. It is not easy to find online.

Reply

Steve Kay

13/7/2015 10:55:54 am

Thank you for your gracious response Eileen. I wholeheartedly agree with you this young man deserves to be remembered just as the victims of the terrible atrocities of 7/7 have been. The difference is that the for the victims of 7/7 justice has been fully served and for Jean Menezes not at all.

The family are right to seek justice by every means open to them. Britain should be proud of it's part in establishing the European Convention on Human Rights and no British Government worthy of the position should be seeking to break away from the ECHR's jurisdiction.

It is as you say, hard to find reliable information on line, and even harder to piece together a coherent story of exactly what really happened. Much has appeared and then disappeared over the ten years. You can still find the transcript of the Stockwell Inquest in an obscure little internet cubbyhole here – webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20090317235546/http://www.stockwellinquest .org.uk
- but it won't tell you everything.

Q. “... what did you expect they were going to do
or what did you think they might do, or did you not
have any idea?”
A. “I can't comment, sir.”

I think the identically dressed officer who pinned the young man back into his seat thought he would be arrested, I do not believe he expected them to shoot him. In the event that officer came perilously close to being shot himself; it was he who several officers then pushed the floor, he was non-white, he had devices strapped under his clothing, he was carrying a backpack. It was he who matched the description of a suicide bomber.

Reply

Eileen

13/7/2015 03:12:45 pm

Steve

Once again thank you

The additional information will be useful to myself and others following this case and still hoping the young man's family may one day get justice.

Thank you also for the link which I will check out.

Like you I think we should be strengthening our links to the European Convention on Human Rights but the Tory government has other plans I know.

NEWTEKWORLDNEWS

31/3/2016 03:09:26 pm

Comments were closed by a 'glitch' but are open again thank you

Reply

Hannah

31/3/2016 07:55:32 pm

It was shocking and he deserves all the justice. I do not understand if a mistake was made why not come out into the open and admitted.
Thank you for your hard to high light the injustice and report all the correct facts.
It is not easy after all those years.

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